One of the sermons during Advent was about being bah humbug.  Wondering, what happened to Ebenezer Scrooge to make him  bah humbug.  Perhaps when he was a child he had wanted something for Christmas such as a red truck and  oh how he wanted it.  He told his parents, his teachers, everyone at church, he prayed about it, and even wrote a letter to Santa to make sure there was no doubt what he wanted.  Certain that he would get this red truck he was full of anticipation.  Perhaps on Christmas morning with great anticipation he opened his presents one by one, but there was no red truck.  He did not get what he was sure he would get, so for the rest of his life he began to have a bah humbug attitude.

Perhaps we are that way in our spirit.  When we go to God in prayer about certain things we want, a new job, a promotion, a relationship that never happened.  Sometimes when we don’t get those answered prayers could it be that we become bah humbug in our spirit?  Perhaps thinking why did that other person get that promotion and not me, I am faithful why did I not get what I asked for becoming bah humbug in our spirit.

But the gift of Christmas is Jesus, the greatest gift we will ever receive, much better than any red truck, or promotion at work.  At Christmas time we are reminded of this gift because it is socially acceptable to talk about it during this time.  But what about after Christmas, when the tree is taken down, the decorations are put away, do we also put away Jesus in the attic, because we didn’t get what we wanted?  Have we forgotten about the greatest gift of all and leave it behind after Christmas.

Sometimes we just can’t understand why things happen the way that they do and it leaves us with a bah humbug spirit preventing us from having an intimate relationship with God. But God has a good plan for us (Jeremiah 29:11).

You see He loved us so much that He emptied himself and came to us in human form, in the form a baby, baby Jesus.  He walked with us and talked with us and showed us how to live our lives.  He grew up to die on the cross to take away the sins of the world, for me and for you.  He did this because sin stood in the way of an intimate relationship with God, the one that was lost in the Garden of Eden when sin entered the world.  Jesus took away the sins and defeated death by rising again and promises to go and prepare a place for us in heaven.  It is the relationship that is the gift.  Let us not be bah humbug in our spirits and miss the relationship gift that Jesus died on the cross for.  Let us be in that relationship all year long, every day.  John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  Let us have peace all year long by being in relationship with God.  

Challenge:  What will you do with this gift in 2018?  How will you stay in relationship with the one that died for you?